The Royal Inclusio – Love (9)

“This I command you, that you love one another.” John 15:17. 

Here is the completion of the Royal Inclusio that began in verse 12 with, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.” 

Love forms the beginning and the end of the Upper Room (another inclusio), we saw it in 13:1, “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end,” and we will see it in John 17:26, “So that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” 

Also, let us ever keep 1 John 3:16 in our hearts, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” 

Now I suppose there are at least three things we ought to ask ourselves: What does this look like in the church? What does this look like in my own life? What does this look like in my family? 

When I ask, “What does this look like in my family?” I am asking two questions. The first question is the one most people likely hear, the second question is one we likely do not hear. What are the two questions? We’ll come back to them.

Since it is always good to begin by looking in the mirror, let’s ask ourselves whether we are keeping this royal command of Jesus Christ. Am I loving others as Jesus Christ loves me? Am I laying down my life for others just as Jesus Christ laid down His life for me? I must not look at others, I must not look at the church, until I have first looked at myself in the light of God’s Word. 

Is my center of gravity Christ and others, or am I the center of my life? Is my life about self-preservation, is it about my wants and needs and agendas, or is it about Jesus Christ and others? 

Now I realize that this is a hard saying, but I wonder why it is hard. After all, the call of Jesus to follow Him clearly includes the call to lose our lives (Mark 8:34 – 38). Why then should we be surprised at the thought that we are live for Christ and others? 

If I am a student, I am in school for others. If I am at work, I am at work for others. If I am engaged in recreation, I am there for others. If I am involved in social or civic activities, I am involved for the benefit of others. In other words, there should be no sphere of life in which I am not living for Jesus Christ and loving others as Jesus loves me. This should also, naturally, include participation in church. Would it not be novel to see churches whose members love one another as Jesus loves them? (More on this later). 

Yes, this Way of Life is radical, but this is the Way of Jesus. Jesus is quite clear, we are to love one another as He loves us, and this means laying down our lives for one another. 

As we will see in the next section of the Upper Room (15:18 – 16:4), there is a price to be paid for living this Way, but it is an honor and glory to pay such a price.  This is the Way of the Cross, and it is also the Way of Resurrection (Romans 8:12 – 25). 

Do we tell ourselves lies to excuse ourselves from following Jesus? 

Do we say, “That was Paul, Jesus appeared to him.  Peter and John were with Jesus, so they could live like that. I am not a pastor (and for sure pastors have their own excuses!). Jesus understands that I must be practical in my life. My family and friends and coworkers will not understand if I am obedient to Jesus. Why should I love people who do not appreciate me? Once I achieve my goals, once I have financial security, I’ll do better about obeying Jesus and loving others." 

What other lies do we tell ourselves to justify not loving others and not laying our lives down for them? 

The glory we forfeit when we refuse Jesus’ command to love one another is the glory of Sonship in Him. Our Father has a grand and glorious eternity awaiting us, and it is His desire that we enter it knowing Jesus in the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of His suffering, being conformed to His death (Philippians 3:10). 

Are we members of the koinonia of the Lamb? Are we following the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev. 14:1–5)?

Can we say with Paul, “For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:11–12)?

O dear friends, how foolish to think that our lives are to be measured by success or bank accounts or possessions, how foolish to use this world’s measurements in our lives, how short-sighted to compromise with the surrounding culture of self-centered evil – including elements of the “church culture.” We are called to live as a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:4–10; Rev. 1:6), belonging to and serving with our High Priest Jesus Christ.

The core of our lives is to be the love of Jesus Christ, it is to be loving one another as Jesus loves us, it is to be the Greater Love that lays down its life for its friends. Jesus gave His life for us, for our brethren, and for the world; we are to give our lives for Him, for our brethren, and for the world. 

Is this the pattern of our lives? 

Is my way of life His Way of Life? Am I living a life of love for others?

What about you?